I’m feeling good and enjoying and appreciating. Seems like the thing to do is to keep doing that instead of trying to become free.
The chat thread seems to have gone dead. It doesn’t seem very accessible, I had to hunt for it. Could that be the reason?
When entering The Watercooler, this topic is supposed to appear first because it is pinned.
However, those who designed Discourse applied a different concept of pinned: that once the user reaches the bottom (i.e., when he “read” all the posts) the topic is automatically unpinned for that user (i.e., “pinned” was implemented in Discourse as “stay at the top until the user read all its posts”).
I changed two options in the preferences so that from now on the pinned topics remain first in their categories (but each user can unpin them with the wrench).
But to check it out, now you should re-pin it for you, here:
(see that, for me, it is Unpinned)
So, next time a member posts in, let’s say, “The perpetual music thread”, the Chat Thread should remain on top for you. Let me know if it was the case.
I like this chat thread because I want to say something but don’t know what to say. I think this is my need to talk which I have talked about before.
I really don’t know why I have not become af. I can think of a few possible reasons but I really don’t know.
@jamesjjoo The question is not why you haven’t become actually free yet, or if you ever will. The question is why you’re not becoming actually free now.
Right now.
Considering actual freedom as something that could have occurred in the past, or might occur in the future, is nothing but ‘you’ escaping from the possibility of it happening now (the only moment it can ever happen).
@geoffrey Excellent point geoffrey and I totally agree. I am looking at right now and it seems like fear is present. Still looking.
Yes that is really helpful @geoffrey, I can see that my normal way of thinking about becoming actually free is a goal which exists in the future which I am currently working towards. Looking at it this way might be necessary at the beginning of the journey to give one some sort of basic orientation.
However if it is to stay this way then Actual freedom will forever remain in the future, it will forever be a concept.
For it to become an actuality it can only ever happen now, the more time spent looking at it as a future goal the more I am perpetuating myself through ‘my’ quest.
I have been thinking alot about your other post about ‘keeping the door open’, this seems to encompass what we are talking about, that it can only ever happen now.
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@geoffrey What you said has helped me to focus on right now because that is the only time it will happen is in this moment of being alive.
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I am here right now. The purity of the actual world is here right now. It is not in another place or time.
I don’t want it like a drowning man wants air. Why?
@jamesjjoo I wouldn’t say that this is necessarily the best metaphor as a drowning man wants air desperately and reflexively. You could think of something you’d really and honestly love to have - something you’d never in a million years refuse if you can help it. It’s more something like that.
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Looking at my post now potentially I am under-emphasising the thirst or hunger for oblivion. But that can also be experienced in the desire of a sleep deprived man for sleep and in those who seek it through drink and drugs. See if you can relate to something like this - that hunger to unburden oneself from ‘me’.
The other thing is that this sincere hunger for ‘ending’ reaches its climax at the point of self-immolation itself. There’s all those other things that need to be in place, which have been spoken of before: access to pure intent, destiny, universality etc which work to increase that desire for oblivion. When you get there, you’ll know it - until then you won’t. So saying ‘I don’t want it badly enough’ is to misunderstand how the desire for oblivion ties into self-immolation.
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@Srinath Your post has helped me to focus on a clear path:
- pure intent - connect to purity of the universe by remembering a pce (working on this now).
- Ramp up a hunger for oblivion (freedom from ‘me’).
- See it as my destiny.
- Not exactly sure what you mean by universality or the other things that need to be in place. I do understand what you said about a hunger for oblivion.
I had an interesting experience the other day.
I was talking with a friend about how we experience social situations, specifically moments where we’re having a good time, and experiencing the other person or people around us as ‘cool.’ We noticed that we frequently raise that person up on a pedestal, ‘they are so cool,’ ‘when I’m around them I have such a good time,’ ‘I wish I could be as cool and light as them.’ But she pointed out something interesting: in those moments, it’s me that’s having the good light time. In other words, noticing the role that I have in having that good time - it’s not the other person (solely) creating that good time, but I am the one experiencing the lightness & enjoyment.
This was a shocking moment for me as it revealed the nature of emotion as not something ‘belonging’ to external factors, but as a veil existing in front of ME (in fact as me). This is the veil Peter describes shortly before becoming free. Part of what this revealed to me is the huge amount of control we actually have over our experience - at any moment we can choose to alter that veil, to experience the world differently, because it is my veil, because it is me.
By choosing to experience this moment of being alive as enjoyment/enjoyable/enjoying/harmless, I - the veil - am all of those qualities, which also means that the veil is the thinnest it can be and thus the actual world can shine through.
All that’s happening is that ‘I’ choose (normally) to dive into all manner of other emotions constantly, which reifies & ‘thickens’ the veil.
The way is clear (:
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@jamesjjoo You can read about it here in the last section: SIMPLE ACTUALISM - Actual Freedom
Keep in mind that it reads a bit clunky or complicated when written down. The experience itself is quite cohesive, simple and compelling. So needless to say there is really no substitute for the experience itself.
In replying to @rick that the real world is in the psyche and the actual world is not in the psyche has helped me to connect to the actual world directly thru the senses and not look at it thru the psyche.
I found this interesting, especially trying to think about time in as large of increments as large as 2.6 million years or 100,000 years. The cultural developments we live inside of are so relatively fresh!
Is everything except the actual world a belief?